Medfield’s Me Two You aims to give 500 blankets to Chinese orphans

By Mai Ngọc Châu, c.mai@wickedlocal.com

The story is run on The Medfield Press issued on June 29, 2012

MEDFIELD — That is the pledge made by Me Two You, a mom-operated socially responsible company that trades baby blankets online, when it kicked off its first official campaign, “500 blankets to China Challenge,” on June 25.

Veronica Zanellato Kido, co-owner of Medfield-based Me Two You, said for each Me Two You blanket purchased during the campaign, her company would offer a baby blanket made of solid fleece fabric with the same quality to an orphaned child in China.

The Asian nation has a special meaning to Kido’s co-founder, Sarah J. Remington.

Her daughter was adopted from an orphanage in Kunming, a city in Southeast China, five years ago.

Since then, Remington has harbored a desire to donate blankets to orphaned babies in China.

“I always dreamed of being able to give back to those who helped my daughter while she waited for us to be united as a family,” said Remington, who designs the blankets.

“It will be an amazing experience to travel back to China with my daughter and husband to donate blankets for warmth and security to children in China’s orphanages,” she said.

That blanket drop actually would be the second donation since Remington, Kido and their Brazilian friend, Flávia R. da Silva-Benson, joined hands to realize their mission, “For every child to have a blanket to call their own” in late 2009.

“We started with 25 baby blankets in Brazil prior to the company launching [in September 2011],” Remington said.

She said her partner Benson brought those blankets to donate in her hometown of São Paulo.

The Me Two You’s current blanket donation campaign is supported by the California-based Half the Sky Foundation, which has worked since 1998 to enrich the lives of orphaned children in China.

“Because Me Two You’s sales also benefit orphaned children, who have been the focus of our work since we were founded, our partnership is a natural fit,” said Patricia King, Half the Sky’s chief communications officer.

The organization has served about 70,000 orphaned children in China.

Kido said Half the Sky has volunteered to help promote Me Two You’s campaign within its community.

For every Me Two You plush blanket sold through Half the Sky’s online store (halfthesky.org), the company will give a blanket to an orphaned child and donate $10 to Half the Sky.

Kido said since the China campaign started its “silent phase” at the beginning of 2012, more than 50 Me Two You Baby blankets have been purchased.

“I chose a Me Two You Baby blanket because I am a new mother myself,” said Carrie Beaulieu Shusteff of Winchester. “I have a one-year-old daughter, and I love the idea of social responsibility of the company. Sending a blanket to an orphan is an amazing idea to me.”

Brazil and China are not the only locations that Me Two You’s owners want to focus on. Remington said her company has also contacted the DCF Kids Fund in Boston and the Boston branch of the federal foster care system.

Boston will be the focus of Me Two You’s next campaign, which means, she said, “When you buy one blanket, you are really buying two. The gift is from Me Two You.”